BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Friday 23rd August 2019) – At the annual traditional summer music workshop organised by well-known Cultural Preservationist Winston ‘Zack’ Nisbett, making music and instilling discipline go together in shaping talented and focused boys and girls for lifelong lessons.
Now in its 13th year, the workshop, which wraps up this weekend (Monday 29th July to Saturday 24th August), has been conducted under the theme ‘Discipline Is Still The Key’ at Zack’s Historical-Cultural Library & Museum located at the Buckley’s Estate.
Instruments spotlighted annually include fife, banjo, quarto and guitar.
Workshop Tutor is a veteran musician Wilmoth ‘Mighty Jules’ Solis, who hails from the Dieppe Bay community.
This week, this media house visited the workshop venue. Among the activities saw rehearsals in preparing for the closing ceremony featuring genres such as gospel and folklore.
Nisbett was in high praise of the sessions and overall atmosphere.
“I think we have a fantastic group of youngsters. The tutor is interactive, hilarious, exciting, creative and innovative.”
He also talked about the importance of teaching the youngsters about cultural music as well as schooling them about self-respect and respect for others.
“Doing my part to ensure that the culture lives on is what gives me the impetus to host this workshop. The theme this year is very important because young people should be disciplined. As the saying goes ‘Manners maketh man’, and so at the workshop, we try to instill lessons about good behaviour.”
Nisbett highlighted that the children can make a living from the art of knowing how to play an instrument.
According to him, from gigs conducted over the years, workshop students have been able to pocket monies from public performances to buy school supplies for which families continue to be pleased and appreciative regarding the children’s overall involvement.
Meanwhile Solis, a guitarist, had this to say: “I’m glad to come here after Zack invited me to teach the children the (musical) alphabet. A lot of them are doing well but one challenge I have with them is when I’m singing, they have to know how to change the key but all of them know the alphabet and they have done well.”
Commenting on how he feels about sharing his talent, he replied: “It’s a good thing to show them the talent in the name of the Almighty and their family…”
He, too, spoke about good behaviour and indicated that some of the children “need to settle down but otherwise they are ready.”
“I want the children to respect one another because you can’t come to a workshop and playing you’re bad and these kind of things. They have to done away with those things. They have to communicate with one another and live happy but I really want to tank these boys and girls because they have done well,” Solis added.
Come tomorrow (Saturday), the usual graduation ceremony is slated to take place at 5PM.
Sponsors and contributors of the workshop include Delisle Walwyn & Company Ltd. and Development Bank.